The Zadruga in the Military Border

A key feature of the military border between Austria and the Ottoman Empire was the joint-family household, known as the Zadruga. It was not unique to the military border, but it became an important element of military organisation.

The earliest records of the Zadruga go back to the 13th Century. In Serbia it had defensive advantages as well as matching agricultural practice. The classic definition (Karadzic 1827) states:

“The Serbs live mainly in Zadrugas. In some houses there are four or five married men, and one-family households are rare. There are many Vajats (sleeping quarters used by individual married couples) as there are married men, and the house itself is only for communal eating and the place in which the old women and men sleep…. Every household has a Staresina (headman) who governs and guides the household.”

An advantage of the system was that it enabled men to be absent on trade, agriculture or military service, without disrupting the household economy or leaving families unprotected. Control generally passed down the male line, although many males could live in more than one Zadruga before they married. Women generally married in to the Zadruga, although they might return to their family Zadruga when widowed. Most property was in common ownership, except for personal possessions.

The size of Zadrugas is difficult to quantify because official records are limited, but they could have 30 to 40 members, some even larger. In the military border, the Karlstadt district averaged around 2700 Grenzers in the 17th Century and the Warasdin district could muster up to 7,000 men. A 1735 report (Hilburghausen) claimed as many as 50,000 fighting men could be raised on the Croatian borders alone. The 1764-65 restructuring resulted over 70,000 men available for mobilisation.

In the military border the role of the Zadruga was set out in the Statuta Valachorum of 1630. It covered all the Grenzer, including Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs, who had in the main fled territories occupied by the Ottomans from around 1600. The Zadruga (called Hauskommunion in Austrian documents), not any individual, became the recipient of the land grant and was responsible for the families of men on military service. All males between the ages of 16 and 60 were subject to military service. The military border also kept the Zadruga families out of the clutches of the Croatian nobility.

The Grenzer received no pay, but were supported by their Zadruga, who furnished one armed man. Attempts to increase this to a more proportionate system were thwarted by the Austrian establishment and by under funding.

Each Zadruga was attached to a regiment, although this was largely administrative. Battalions and companies were the tactical units and more appropriate to the ‘small war’ endemic conflict on the border. At time of war the entire force would be organised into three levies. The first would join the field army, the second would man the frontier defences and the third would farm and act as a general reserve.

The 1754 code proclaimed the Zadruga to be crown property, held by the Grenzer for as long it met its military responsibilities. The basic unit supported one soldier, although larger units were allocated to Hussar homesteads, recognising the cost of maintaining a horse. Even privately owned land had to be sold to Grenzers and few non-military persons were allowed to live in border areas. There was also communal responsibility under the legal code for banditry, which was endemic in some parts of the border.

By the time of the Napoleonic wars the effectiveness of the military border was breaking down. Harvest failures, particularly in Croatian areas, caused famine and desertion became a major problem. Again, reform attempts were not properly implemented and short term relief measures did not solve the underlying problems. After the Battle of Wagram in 1809, the French took over part of the military border for four years. French reformers wanted to abolish the system, but military need outweighed these considerations.

The defeat of Napoleon brought the border back to Austria, but without the underlying problems being resolved. The Grenzer played an important part in the 1848 Hungarian Revolution, but it was increasing viewed as an anachronism. Universal conscription ended the need for manpower and it was gradually wound up between 1871 and 1881.

Zadruga can still be seen in villages today in the military border areas and more widely in Serbia. Present day marketing cooperatives are called Zadrugas and it was the name given to the collectivisation of farming in communist Yugoslavia.